# Van Wanggaard

Van Wanggaard is a Republican member of the Wisconsin Senate for district 21.

- Party: Republican
- Seat: Wisconsin Senate, district 21
- Serving since: 2015-01-05
- Current term: WI 2025–26 session
- Open States ID: ocd-person/b2ad4345-9408-4238-a1f9-13e747f599b3

Source: https://americaspoliticalpulse.com/p/b2ad4345-9408-4238-a1f9-13e747f599b3 (America’s Political Pulse, Polarization Research Lab), data through 2026-10-27. Data under CC BY 4.0. Cite as: Westwood, Sean J., and Yphtach Lelkes. 2024. America's Political Pulse [data set].

## Headline

33% of Wanggaard’s statements criticize a policy, 3.5 times the State Senate Republican average of 9.5%.

## What Wanggaard says (WI 2025–26 session)

243 classified statements: 243 posts on X. Each rate is the share of statements with the label, against the State Senate Republicans average; rank 1 is the highest rate.

| Label | Wanggaard | State Senate Republicans average | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal attacks | 7.0% | 2.3% | 38 of 354 |
| Policy criticism | 32.9% | 9.5% | 10 of 354 |
| Policy discussion | 58.4% | 37.3% | 50 of 354 |
| Bipartisanship | 1.2% | 2.3% | 196 of 354 |
| Credit claiming | 9.0% | 15.4% | 218 of 354 |
| Extreme labels | 1.2% | 1.3% | 102 of 354 |

Most discussed policy areas: Crime and Law Enforcement 20% (State Senate Republicans 12%); Government Operations and Politics 20% (State Senate Republicans 17%); Economics and Public Finance 18% (State Senate Republicans 12%); Education 17% (State Senate Republicans 14%); Taxation 15% (State Senate Republicans 7.1%).

## Ideology (CSIP)

CSIP score +0.76 (standard error 0.03), from 449 donors and 579 roll calls. Negative is left of 0, positive right of it, on one scale for every official. 93% of State Senate Republicans score lower.

## Votes (WI 2025–26 session)

191 roll calls. Attendance 100% (Wisconsin Senate 99.8%). Party unity 100% (97.3%). 0 votes against the party majority.

Key votes:

- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 911 Relating to: funding for a battery collection and recycling program and making an appropriation. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB911/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 454 Relating to: a workforce home loan program. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB454/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 182 Relating to: changes to the low-income housing tax credit. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB182/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 604 Relating to: coverage under the Medical Assistance program for incarcerated individuals. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB604/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 248 Relating to: vacancies in appointive state offices. · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB248/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 884 Relating to: who may purchase certain contractual services and technical changes to tax provisions related to qualified retirement plans and the film… · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB884/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 595 Relating to: compliance with the federal Help America Vote Act, voter registration data sharing agreements, removing ineligible voters from the… · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB595/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 373 Relating to: creating a refundable individual income tax credit for the parent of a stillbirth and making an appropriation. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB373/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 685 Relating to: individual income tax subtraction for certain theft losses. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB685/
- 2026-03-17 · voted yea · CONCURRENCE · AB 650 Relating to: funding for identity verification under the unemployment insurance law and making an appropriation. (FE) · pass · https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/AB650/

## Legislation (WI 2025–26 session)

Sponsored 167 bills: 167 reached committee, 54 passed one chamber, 40 passed both, 27 became law. Cosponsored 0. 66.5% of sponsored bills got out of committee (Wisconsin Senate 42.9%; rank 11 of 33).

Recent sponsored bills:

- SJR 140: Relating to: congratulating the U.S. Olympic Women’s Ice Hockey Team on winning the Olympic gold medal. (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SJR140/
- SB 1081: Relating to: prohibiting vaping on public and private school property. (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB1081/
- SB 1083: Relating to: applying the indoor smoking ban to electronic delivery devices and marijuana. (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB1083/
- SB 1047: Relating to: modifying administrative rules relating to regulation of opioid treatment programs and requiring adjustments to the rates for substance use… (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB1047/
- SB 1033: Relating to: allowing more than 35 percent of the area within a tax incremental district in the Village of Somers to be used for residential use. (FE) (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB1033/
- SJR 133: Relating to: reaffirming Wisconsin’s commitment to the strengthening and deepening of the sister ties between the State of Wisconsin and Taiwan, reaffirming… (passed one chamber, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SJR133/
- SB 994: Relating to: public affairs network request for proposals. (passed one chamber, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB994/
- SB 1: Relating to: onetime individual income tax rebates. (FE) (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB1/
- SB 995: Relating to: funding for individual income tax rebates and making an appropriation. (FE) (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB995/
- SB 928: Relating to: expanding the Office of School Safety to cover technical colleges and campus safety plans for technical colleges. (FE) (in committee, 2026-03-23) https://openstates.org/wi/bills/2025/SB928/

## Campaign money (2026 cycle)

Itemized receipts $45.8K (State Senate Republicans median $46.2K). 57% of itemized individual money came from in state. Aggregates only; no individual donors.

## Recent statements

Newest first. Posts on X are listed by date and link only.

- 2026-10-20 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/Vanwanggaard/status/2112635363986387176
- 2026-09-29 · Post on X · labels: policy criticism, policy discussion · https://x.com/Vanwanggaard/status/2104927143901999436
- 2026-09-28 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/Vanwanggaard/status/2104584470192161193
- 2026-09-28 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/Vanwanggaard/status/2104651197621641468
- 2026-09-17 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/Vanwanggaard/status/2100578517930868972
- 2026-09-17 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/Vanwanggaard/status/2100626980202791302
- 2026-09-15 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/Vanwanggaard/status/2099856283318817070
- 2026-09-11 · Post on X · https://x.com/Vanwanggaard/status/2098422913711890537
- 2026-09-10 · Post on X · labels: policy discussion · https://x.com/Vanwanggaard/status/2098121087418572852
- 2026-09-10 · Post on X · https://x.com/Vanwanggaard/status/2098185825653506226

## Links

- Official site: https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2023/legislators/senate/2438
- Campaign site: http://www.wanggaardforsenate.com/meet-van.html
- X: https://x.com/Vanwanggaard
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/senvanwanggaard
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHQZmyWfMnfiFTIO3cL8xjQ
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/van-wanggaard-2b66181ab/

Full profile, with every chart and the methods: https://americaspoliticalpulse.com/p/b2ad4345-9408-4238-a1f9-13e747f599b3